Facebook entries will be logged under new surveillance powers

Details of Facebook messages, texts and internet gaming activity of every person in Britain will be logged under proposed new laws unveiled today by Jacqui Smith.

Under the plans, which will cost up to £2 billion to implement, internet and phone companies will be required to store information on their customers' communications for a year. The Home Secretary said the aim was to combat crime, including terrorism, drugs smuggling and paedophile rings, by enabling the police to track criminals' contacts more easily.

In a concession to critics, she also announced that a previous idea of storing all the information on a single giant government database have been abandoned. Despite this, opponents immediately condemned the proposals as an excessive invasion of personal privacy. Ms Smith insisted that extending existing regulations, which already require the retention of data on emails and phone calls, was essential because of the "rapid technological changes" in the way that people communicate with each other.

She listed crimes, including the failed London and Glasgow car bombings and the murder of Liverpool schoolboy Rhys Jones, where the current powers had proved vital in bringing offenders to justice.

She added: "My key priority is to protect the citizens of the UK. Communications data is an essential tool for law enforcement agencies to track murderers and paedophiles, save lives and tackle crime."

The proposals will be subject to consultation prior to legislation being brought forward.

The actual content of emails and other communications will not be monitored, however, and police and MI5 will only be able to access such information if they gain specific approval in each case.

Opponents denounced the changes, with shadow home secretary Chris Grayling saying: "Everywhere we look, the Government seems to be building a database to track one aspect of our lives or another. We must not allow ourselves to become a Big Brother society."

Shami Chakrabarti, director of civil rights group Liberty, added: "It is a hallmark of free societies that while the police target criminal suspects, government does not monitor the entire population.

"The authorities say that this consultation is about maintaining existing surveillance capacity, but the record of recent years suggests ever larger ambitions and show a creeping contempt for our personal privacy."